The following is his portrait of our late gracious sovereign:--
(Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the
shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his
view; and he exclaims to his ghostly guide)--
"'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us?
(Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the
shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his
view; and he exclaims to his ghostly guide)--
"'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us?
Byron
The whole
action passes on the outside of heaven; and Chaucer's _Wife of Bath_,
Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_, Swift's _Tale of a Tub_, and the other
works above referred to, are cases in point of the freedom with which
saints, etc. , may be permitted to converse in works not intended to be
serious.
Q. R.
* * * Mr. Southey being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive,
threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped
that his visionary faculties will in the meantime have acquired a little
more judgment, properly so called: otherwise he will get himself into
new dilemmas. These apostate jacobins furnish rich rejoinders. Let him
take a specimen. Mr. Southey laudeth grievously "one Mr. Landor,"[498]
who cultivates much private renown in the shape of Latin verses; and
not long ago, the poet laureate dedicated to him, it appeareth, one of
his fugitive lyrics, upon the strength of a poem called "_Gebir_. " Who
could suppose, that in this same Gebir the aforesaid Savage Landor (for
such is his grim cognomen) putteth into the infernal regions no less a
person than the hero of his friend Mr. Southey's heaven,--yea, even
George the Third! See also how personal Savage becometh, when he hath a
mind.
The following is his portrait of our late gracious sovereign:--
(Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the
shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his
view; and he exclaims to his ghostly guide)--
"'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us? what wretch
Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow?
Listen! him yonder who, bound down supine,
Shrinks yelling from that sword there, engine-hung;
He too amongst my ancestors! [I hate
The despot, but the dastard I despise.
Was he our countryman? '
'Alas,][499] O king!
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst
Inclement winds blew blighting from north-east. '
'He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the gods? '
'Gebir, he feared the Demons, not the gods,
Though them indeed his daily face adored;
And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives
Squandered, as stones to exercise a sling,
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice--
Oh madness of mankind! addressed, adored! '"
_Gebir_ [_Works, etc. _, 1876, vii. 17].
I omit noticing some edifying Ithyphallics of Savagius, wishing to keep
the proper veil over them, if his grave but somewhat indiscreet
worshipper will suffer it; but certainly these teachers of "great moral
lessons" are apt to be found in strange company.
THE VISION OF JUDGMENT.
action passes on the outside of heaven; and Chaucer's _Wife of Bath_,
Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_, Swift's _Tale of a Tub_, and the other
works above referred to, are cases in point of the freedom with which
saints, etc. , may be permitted to converse in works not intended to be
serious.
Q. R.
* * * Mr. Southey being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive,
threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped
that his visionary faculties will in the meantime have acquired a little
more judgment, properly so called: otherwise he will get himself into
new dilemmas. These apostate jacobins furnish rich rejoinders. Let him
take a specimen. Mr. Southey laudeth grievously "one Mr. Landor,"[498]
who cultivates much private renown in the shape of Latin verses; and
not long ago, the poet laureate dedicated to him, it appeareth, one of
his fugitive lyrics, upon the strength of a poem called "_Gebir_. " Who
could suppose, that in this same Gebir the aforesaid Savage Landor (for
such is his grim cognomen) putteth into the infernal regions no less a
person than the hero of his friend Mr. Southey's heaven,--yea, even
George the Third! See also how personal Savage becometh, when he hath a
mind.
The following is his portrait of our late gracious sovereign:--
(Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the
shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his
view; and he exclaims to his ghostly guide)--
"'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us? what wretch
Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow?
Listen! him yonder who, bound down supine,
Shrinks yelling from that sword there, engine-hung;
He too amongst my ancestors! [I hate
The despot, but the dastard I despise.
Was he our countryman? '
'Alas,][499] O king!
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst
Inclement winds blew blighting from north-east. '
'He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the gods? '
'Gebir, he feared the Demons, not the gods,
Though them indeed his daily face adored;
And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives
Squandered, as stones to exercise a sling,
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice--
Oh madness of mankind! addressed, adored! '"
_Gebir_ [_Works, etc. _, 1876, vii. 17].
I omit noticing some edifying Ithyphallics of Savagius, wishing to keep
the proper veil over them, if his grave but somewhat indiscreet
worshipper will suffer it; but certainly these teachers of "great moral
lessons" are apt to be found in strange company.
THE VISION OF JUDGMENT.
